U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton addresses criticism for comments about trans athletes

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton has come under extensive criticism in the last few days from his own party for comments he made about transgender athletes to The New York Times.

The Democrat, who served in the Marines, is hosting a Veterans' Day Town Hall in Marblehead on Monday. Ahead of the event he spoke with WBUR's Morning Edition host Tiziana Dearing to respond to the backlash he's received.

Read their conversation below. (This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.)

Dearing: You have hit a live wire in the last few days, receiving criticism from within your party here in the state for comments to The New York Times after the election results came in last week, you said, "I have two little girls. I don't want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete. But as a Democrat, I'm supposed to be afraid to say that."

Now, since then a top aid has resigned, although he has not confirmed whether this was the reason. There have been calls for your resignation. Let me ask you this: What do you want for trans kids who want a chance to play sports?

Moulton: "Well, trans kids can play sports, that's fine, but the question is when kids get older, when you're talking about competitive sports in college and whatnot, and a lot of Americans, the vast majority of voters, believe that there should be restrictions on allowing trans women, you know, people born male who have transitioned to being women, or just straight, you know, men playing on women's teams.

"And I hear this from a lot of voters, and the point is that we need to be able to have a conversation about that, Tiziana. But the backlash to my comments proves my point, because this isn't just about trans kids. I use that as an example to The New York Times of a much larger issue that we have in our party, where we can't have discussions about contentious issues that resonate with a lot of voters, and frankly, that's why we lost this election."

Have that with me now. You must have realized that 24 or 48 hours after the [presidential election] results, this is a community that would be feeling particularly vulnerable and afraid, right? A traumatized community. You care about mental health. So why pick trans kids as your way to make your point?

"Well, first of all, I didn't pick trans kids. You're just reading that into my comments. I mean, my kids play on co-ed teams now. And I just explained to you that we're talking about sports when kids get older. But this is the point, Tiziana, you gotta listen. And we should be able to talk about contentious issues, like, what are we going to do about trans kids in sports?

"When we say trans kids, we're talking about when they're, you know, teenagers and whatnot and actually are, you know, the biological differences of being born male really show through. But also, what are we going to do about the border? You know, this is the same group of people who are trying to cancel me because I simply want to have a conversation."

So you want me to listen to you, so I am, and let me ask you a follow up question on this. You are talking then — let me be clear — you are talking about high school and college here.

"Well, that's, look, I'm not an expert on this issue. One of the great things about starting this debate is that I have heard from a lot of advocates, LGBTQ folks who have reached out to me and have actually been willing to have this conversation, even while some of the, you know, woke left just wants to cancel me.

"And what I hear from them is, first of all, there's a good number of them who agree with me. That there should be restrictions, but the overwhelming response I've gotten on this issue from across the board is, 'Thank you, Seth, I support this position.' But the point I was making to The New York Times is, it's not just about trans issues, even though that was something that resonated strongly with swing voters in the election. The issue is that we as a party just cancel people. And how are we going to get back in touch with the majority of American voters if we're not willing to listen to them, to hear their views on these contentious issues and actually have a debate."

So I hear you. And you're making your strong point. I just need to ask you this last question: The thing I haven't heard you say in the last several days of response on this is, I know I hurt someone, and if I did, I'm sorry about that.

"Look, the reason why — first of all, if you look at my Facebook post last night, I did talk about these issues, but the reason why I'm insisting on having this debate and not being cancelled for it, which is not going to succeed, by the way, let's be clear, is because trans kids will be attacked under a Trump administration, Tiziana.

"We have to figure out a strategy forward on this because if we just keep our heads in the sand and pretend that the Republicans under Trump are not going to go after all kinds of minorities all across America, then we're being really naive. So we need to have this debate now within our party and come up with a new strategy, a winning strategy on this issue and many others so that we have a chance of preventing the onslaught that's going to come in January."